This was it. Two months of Putrajaya weekend training culminating into our firm's dragon boat team travelling down to compete at the Singapore River Regatta. My vice-captain and I had drawn up a full itinerary for the team, detailing with military precision all the events planned for the entire weekend.
Things started off with us meeting at the office on Friday morning 7am to travel down to Singapore on the coach we had chartered. After what seemed like a neverending journey, we arrived at Miramar Hotel. Our base camp for the next 3 days. Our arrival time was slightly later than we had planned and we had time to quickly check in and grab a quick lunch. We then squeezed in a practice session over at Kallang where Sava took us out for a short practice. We got a taste of the conditions of the river where the Singapore dragon boat teams train. It made us very thankful to have the clean waters of Putrajaya lake.
We took a short walk along the Singapore River to get a feel of what the race course was going to be like. All the dragon boats were already set up and nestling comfortably by the shore. I was getting nervous looking at the race course, and I wasn't too sure I'd be able to steer the boats to reach the starting line and then down the race lanes. I have to say that it is quite a sight to see 30 over of us swarming from place to place. It was also a bit of a logistics headache to ensure that all of us made it OK from place to place, getting on and off the buses, crossing the road, finding places to eat!
Dinner on Friday night was over at Lau Pa Sat, an easy location for everyone to just spread out and buy what they wanted. We feasted on all the hawker food on display and it was an early night back to the hotel. We carefully laid out our racing attire for the next morning and had an early night's rest, adhering to our itinerary which stated that lights out was to be at 10.30pm.
6.30am, and it was race day morning! We had to get changed into our full racing attire, and then head down to the hotel for breakfast.
Group picture at the Miramar lobby
The coach then brought us from the hotel down to the Boat Quay area, where we were immediately greeted with the sight of hundreds of paddlers already by the riverside, spilling out to the nearby UOB Towers.
We had signed up for 5 different events, although originally we had signed up for 6 but had to pull out of 1 of the events due to a scheduling clash. It was going to be a 300-metre sprint down the Singapore River. The 5 events would be the Women 10-paddler boat in the National Championships event, Women-10 in the Inter-Corporate, Men-10 in the Inter-Corporate, Mixed-10 in the Inter-Corporate and finally, our Mixed-20 in the National Championships as well. All these 5 races would be spread out over only 2 hours during Saturday morning. It was going to be very taxing on the team.
The women had to race first and we headed onto the loading area and got on our boat.
I was nervous for the team and I was very nervous being the steerer. It was the first time I saw the steering oar being lashed to the back of the boat that way, and I was worried that I would have to lash the ropes myself, and I had never done that before. I was used to having a U-bolt. Luckily the steering oar was already tied when I got to the boat, but the oar was very uncomfortably tight and too low. I did not have time to undo any of the knots so would have to make do with the best that I could.
My job as steerer was simple. Get the boat as quickly as possible to the starting line which was at the bridge further down the river, and quickly get the boat aligned and the steerers will have to hold on to a rope and inch forward and make the rope taught in order to line up all the boats. An example is as below:
Unseen behind all the starts, was the fact that all the boats would have to do a lot of waiting. You will have boats from various heats all stacked up waiting in the waters behind the starting lines, waiting for their turn to be called. Boats can be seen hiding under another bridge, seeking shelter from the sun. Up to 15 boats from 3 different heats may be waiting around in the river behind the starting line.
Our first race is finally underway and the ladies really give it their all. We soon trail the other boats though, and the wake from the boats ahead jolt our boat but the women keep up their paddling and I cheer them on from the back, as I make small adjustments with the steering oar to keep the boat straight.
We ended up last in our heats but there are still a few more events to go. The men have to get ready for their event. It is quite an achievement for the firm to even have 10 men to select for a 10-all male boat. This is the first time that our dragon boat team has had so many men.
Our drummer
The team unfortunately soon establishes a pattern of coming up last in all our heats. The men-10 and the women-10 in the Inter-Corporate categories ended up last. I have to say though that our team is in much better shape than last year, with a marked improvement in paddling technique and overall fitness. But hats off to the Singapore teams, and the corporate teams are just all very fit. I was very impressed with the standard of the corporate teams, and it cannot be easy to find the time to train. Something for us to aspire to achieve for next year.
Our mixed-20 event then follows. We had to completely change the line-up of our mixed-20 team due to the clash of the scheduling for that morning.
Boarding the boat
Back paddle off the dock
Paddles up!
Our mixed-20 could not quite match the competitors and that left our Inter-Corporate Mixed-10 boat as our final race. We were going to go all out and try to get a decent result. We were out of the blocks quite fast, and we had a very good start. First 10 deep strokes, and then 20 sprint strokes. By the 150m mark, we were still not left behind but other teams very soon caught up with us and started to pass us by. By this time, I could see that our boat was going out of sync and fatigue was starting to set in. Both the drummer and I continued to shout commands to the boat, and to try to catch up with the other boats.
Finally though, we did not have enough left in our tanks, whereas the other boats still had enough stamina to charge to the finishing line.
It was an exhilirating experience, notwithstanding our results and I was proud as to how far we had progressed together as a team over the last 2 months. I am already planning on how to organise training sessions for next year but for now, we could go and party the night away.
We first had a drinks session at Brewerkz, which was hosted by the Drew & Napier lawyers. Drew's managing partner had heard about our dragon boat team heading to Singapore and he was excited to have his firm host us.
We had a lot of fun just mingling and having drinks with new-found friends. Everyone was just excitedly chatting with everyone else.
And what would be a dragon boat race without a Boat Race to mark the festivities? Drew and our firm would face off at a Boat Race, with the winner walking away with all the bragging rights. However, the Boat Race would be conducted the Singapore way, with the rowers having to queue up in an orderly manner to reach the mugs.
With the race going down to the wire, we managed to just edge out Drew and claim victory in the Boat Race! We then thanked our hosts and invited them to join us for a seafood dinner at Jumbo Seafood nearby, where we continued with our merry making. The night was just getting started as after dinner, we then adjourned to Pump Room for the rest of the night.
A fantastic weekend of dragon boating. I am looking forward to a short rest from our training sessions, and then plunging back into the Putrajaya waters for more paddling.
Things started off with us meeting at the office on Friday morning 7am to travel down to Singapore on the coach we had chartered. After what seemed like a neverending journey, we arrived at Miramar Hotel. Our base camp for the next 3 days. Our arrival time was slightly later than we had planned and we had time to quickly check in and grab a quick lunch. We then squeezed in a practice session over at Kallang where Sava took us out for a short practice. We got a taste of the conditions of the river where the Singapore dragon boat teams train. It made us very thankful to have the clean waters of Putrajaya lake.
We took a short walk along the Singapore River to get a feel of what the race course was going to be like. All the dragon boats were already set up and nestling comfortably by the shore. I was getting nervous looking at the race course, and I wasn't too sure I'd be able to steer the boats to reach the starting line and then down the race lanes. I have to say that it is quite a sight to see 30 over of us swarming from place to place. It was also a bit of a logistics headache to ensure that all of us made it OK from place to place, getting on and off the buses, crossing the road, finding places to eat!
Dinner on Friday night was over at Lau Pa Sat, an easy location for everyone to just spread out and buy what they wanted. We feasted on all the hawker food on display and it was an early night back to the hotel. We carefully laid out our racing attire for the next morning and had an early night's rest, adhering to our itinerary which stated that lights out was to be at 10.30pm.
6.30am, and it was race day morning! We had to get changed into our full racing attire, and then head down to the hotel for breakfast.
Group picture at the Miramar lobby
The coach then brought us from the hotel down to the Boat Quay area, where we were immediately greeted with the sight of hundreds of paddlers already by the riverside, spilling out to the nearby UOB Towers.
We had signed up for 5 different events, although originally we had signed up for 6 but had to pull out of 1 of the events due to a scheduling clash. It was going to be a 300-metre sprint down the Singapore River. The 5 events would be the Women 10-paddler boat in the National Championships event, Women-10 in the Inter-Corporate, Men-10 in the Inter-Corporate, Mixed-10 in the Inter-Corporate and finally, our Mixed-20 in the National Championships as well. All these 5 races would be spread out over only 2 hours during Saturday morning. It was going to be very taxing on the team.
The women had to race first and we headed onto the loading area and got on our boat.
I was nervous for the team and I was very nervous being the steerer. It was the first time I saw the steering oar being lashed to the back of the boat that way, and I was worried that I would have to lash the ropes myself, and I had never done that before. I was used to having a U-bolt. Luckily the steering oar was already tied when I got to the boat, but the oar was very uncomfortably tight and too low. I did not have time to undo any of the knots so would have to make do with the best that I could.
My job as steerer was simple. Get the boat as quickly as possible to the starting line which was at the bridge further down the river, and quickly get the boat aligned and the steerers will have to hold on to a rope and inch forward and make the rope taught in order to line up all the boats. An example is as below:
Unseen behind all the starts, was the fact that all the boats would have to do a lot of waiting. You will have boats from various heats all stacked up waiting in the waters behind the starting lines, waiting for their turn to be called. Boats can be seen hiding under another bridge, seeking shelter from the sun. Up to 15 boats from 3 different heats may be waiting around in the river behind the starting line.
Our first race is finally underway and the ladies really give it their all. We soon trail the other boats though, and the wake from the boats ahead jolt our boat but the women keep up their paddling and I cheer them on from the back, as I make small adjustments with the steering oar to keep the boat straight.
We ended up last in our heats but there are still a few more events to go. The men have to get ready for their event. It is quite an achievement for the firm to even have 10 men to select for a 10-all male boat. This is the first time that our dragon boat team has had so many men.
Our drummer
The team unfortunately soon establishes a pattern of coming up last in all our heats. The men-10 and the women-10 in the Inter-Corporate categories ended up last. I have to say though that our team is in much better shape than last year, with a marked improvement in paddling technique and overall fitness. But hats off to the Singapore teams, and the corporate teams are just all very fit. I was very impressed with the standard of the corporate teams, and it cannot be easy to find the time to train. Something for us to aspire to achieve for next year.
Our mixed-20 event then follows. We had to completely change the line-up of our mixed-20 team due to the clash of the scheduling for that morning.
Boarding the boat
Back paddle off the dock
Paddles up!
Our mixed-20 could not quite match the competitors and that left our Inter-Corporate Mixed-10 boat as our final race. We were going to go all out and try to get a decent result. We were out of the blocks quite fast, and we had a very good start. First 10 deep strokes, and then 20 sprint strokes. By the 150m mark, we were still not left behind but other teams very soon caught up with us and started to pass us by. By this time, I could see that our boat was going out of sync and fatigue was starting to set in. Both the drummer and I continued to shout commands to the boat, and to try to catch up with the other boats.
Finally though, we did not have enough left in our tanks, whereas the other boats still had enough stamina to charge to the finishing line.
It was an exhilirating experience, notwithstanding our results and I was proud as to how far we had progressed together as a team over the last 2 months. I am already planning on how to organise training sessions for next year but for now, we could go and party the night away.
We first had a drinks session at Brewerkz, which was hosted by the Drew & Napier lawyers. Drew's managing partner had heard about our dragon boat team heading to Singapore and he was excited to have his firm host us.
We had a lot of fun just mingling and having drinks with new-found friends. Everyone was just excitedly chatting with everyone else.
And what would be a dragon boat race without a Boat Race to mark the festivities? Drew and our firm would face off at a Boat Race, with the winner walking away with all the bragging rights. However, the Boat Race would be conducted the Singapore way, with the rowers having to queue up in an orderly manner to reach the mugs.
With the race going down to the wire, we managed to just edge out Drew and claim victory in the Boat Race! We then thanked our hosts and invited them to join us for a seafood dinner at Jumbo Seafood nearby, where we continued with our merry making. The night was just getting started as after dinner, we then adjourned to Pump Room for the rest of the night.
A fantastic weekend of dragon boating. I am looking forward to a short rest from our training sessions, and then plunging back into the Putrajaya waters for more paddling.
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